


Disability Stability

by MabtheWinterQueen



Series: Disability Fics [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Deaf Character, Deaf Will Solace, LGBT, M/M, Mute Nico, TW: mutism, The rest of canon is the same, Universe Alteration, mute character, tw: PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 15:44:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14918196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MabtheWinterQueen/pseuds/MabtheWinterQueen
Summary: When Nico went through Tartarus, he went through literal Hell. And he went through it alone.UA: Deaf!Will/Mute!NicoAll other canon is the same with the exception of Will and Nico’s disabilities.





	Disability Stability

_Darkness…_

 

_Alone…_

 

_I can feel the **hunger** …_

 

_Anger…_

 

_Powerlust…_

 

_It waits…_

 

_Beckons…_

 

_Coiled…_

 

_Stalking its prey…_

 

**_AND YOU CAN’T STOP ME, LITTLE HALF-BLOOD…_ **

 

xXx

 

Nico awakens, clutching his sheets in cold terror. ( _Dark pit seeds monster power hurts hungry trance hungry powerless power STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP._ )

 

When you've been through an ordeal like Ta - the Pit, people understand that you're not very open to talking about it. Nico isn't open to talking about anything. Ever. Will says (signs, actually, because he can't actually make coherent speech escape his lips without hearing himself, and, well, he can't do that either…) that he has trauma-induced mutism. He offers to teach Nico more sign language than the alphabet, an invitation which the younger reluctantly accepts, because the thought of speech takes him back. (Dark cold cramped _IwantoutIwantoutIWANTOUTIWA_ _NTOUT_!)

 

Under Will’s teaching, Nico flourishes not only in sign language but in relaxing a little. He supposes it's the son of Apollo’s easy-going, friendly disposition. He's opened up a little with him, and for once since Bianca died, Nico allows himself a friend.

 

But the nightmares persist (cold dark power anger hunger LET ME OUT) and people are getting frustrated. Hazel blames herself, which Frank and Nico will deny until their dying day. Jason and Percy and all of them, they say that they understand, but he knows that they don't. Sherman Yang cusses for two minutes and calls him a lost cause (he threatens in writing to tell Crotchkicker McCaffrey on him once, and the son of Ares goes white as a sheet). No one gets it.

 

Will is patient with Nico. He doesn't tell Nico that he wants the younger boy to start talking again because, while that would be a sign of recovery, it's kind of futile to talk to a deaf person. (Fun Fact: Will sucks at reading lips. Like, couldn't do it to save his life.)

 

Nico and Will get progressively closer. Nico feels relaxed around the older boy, more himself than he's been (than he's allowed himself to be) since Bianca. Will’s eyes are as blue as the sky, seeming to pierce into your soul, almost always full of joy. He has a lot of freckles everywhere, and, surprisingly, sunburns very easily. (His medical knowledge and SPF50 are the only reasons he’s tan instead of lobster-red.) His blonde hair is thick and curly, and Nico longs to run his hands through it.

 

Two months later, he gets up the nerve to sign “I love you” to Will, to see a fabulous blush (sunburn-red) and a returned gesture.

 

Nico will have the nightmares his entire life. After an experience like Ta - the Pit, you can't really blame him.

 

He will never speak again.

 

But that's okay.

 

Because he has Will. And Will really couldn't care less which language they love in.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I love my disabled gay sons. Seriously, though, try to read somebody’s lips. It’s not easy.
> 
> Fun Author Fact: My grandmother was fluent in sign language, so we use the sign language “I love you” (pinky, index, and thumb straight, ring and middle fingers down so that the pinky is the “I”, the index and thumb make an uppercase “L”, for love, and the space between the index and pinky makes a “U”) a lot around the house and in public when being discreet.


End file.
